National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) They came by plane, boat, bus, and auto to Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Generals, members of Congress, governors, mayors, ambassadors, and celebrities filled the VIP grandstand. Journalists from 54 countries waited to send out the news. Several hundred thousand people had converged on the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, to view the launch of the Saturn V rocket that would propel Apollo 11 to the Moon. Millions of people all over the world kept their eyes on their television sets waiting for the countdown to begin. The engineers and technicians at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama trusted the Saturn rocket they had developed and tested, but may secretly have kept their fingers crossed. The men watching their computer screens at the Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Johnson Space Center) in Texas seemed calm, but their hearts must have been beating a bit faster than normal. At two minutes before the launch, a reporter recorded that "idle conversation halted. Tedium evaporated. 'We have liftoff,' said Mission Control. People shouted 'Go! Go! Go!,' and whispered 'God bless you.' In another two minutes, there was nothing to see but the blue sky."¹ National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier Document Contents National Curriculum Standards About This Lesson Getting Started: Inquiry Question Setting the Stage: Historical Context Locating the Site: Map 1. Map 1: United States Space Installations 2. Map 2: Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center Determining the Facts: Readings 1. Reading 1: Preparing the Way 2. Reading 2: The Apollo Hardware 3. Reading 3: “The Eagle Has Landed” Visual Evidence: Images 1. Transporting the Apollo space vehicle to the launch site 2. Saturn V lifting off, July 16, 1969 3. Mission Control Center, Manned Spacecraft Center (Johnson Space Center) 4. Mission Control Center, diagram and key 5. Front page of the [Washington] Evening Star, July 21, 1969 6. View of the Earth from space Putting It All Together: Activities 1. Activity 1: Unexpected Benefits from Space Research 2. Activity 2: A Mission to Mars? 3. Activity 3: What Price History? References and Endnotes Additional Resources National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier Where this lesson fits into the curriculum Time Period: 1960s Topics: The lesson can be used in American history, social studies, and geography courses in units on the space program, the Cold War and its effects on American society, or interdisciplinary units on science and technology. Relevant United States History Standards for Grades 5-12 This lesson relates to the following National Standards for History from the UCLA National Center for History in the Schools: US History Era 9 • Standard 1C: The student understands how postwar science augmented the nation's economic strength, transformed daily life, and influenced the world economy. • Standard 2A: The student understands the international origins and domestic consequences of the Cold War. Relevant Curriculum Standards for Social Studies This lesson relates to the following Curriculum Standards for Social Studies from the National Council for the Social Studies: Theme III: People, Places, and Environment • Standard G: The Students describe how people create places that reflect cultural values and ideals as they build neighborhoods, parks, shopping centers, and the like. Theme IV: Individual Development and Identity • Standard C: The student describes the ways family, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and institutional affiliations contribute to personal identity. Theme V: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier • Standard D: The student identifies and analyzes examples of tensions between expressions of individuality and group institutional efforts to promote social conformity. Theme VI: Power, Authority, and Governance • Standard A: The student examines persistent issues involving the rights, roles, and status of the individual in relation to the general welfare. Theme VII: Production, Distribution, and Consumption • Standard F: The student explains and illustrates how values and beliefs influence different economic decisions. Relevant Common Core Standards This lesson relates to the following Common Core English and Language Arts Standards for History and Social Studies for middle and high school students: Key Ideas and Details • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.1 • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.2 • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.3 Craft and Structure • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.4 • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.5 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.7 • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.9 Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.10 National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier About This Lesson This lesson is based on National Register of Historic Places registration files for Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (with photographs) in Florida, and for properties located at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Texas.¹ It also uses materials prepared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The lesson was written by Rita G. Koman, an education consultant. It was edited by Fay Metcalf, Marilyn Harper, and the Teaching with Historic Places staff. It was published in 2003. TwHP is sponsored, in part, by the Cultural Resources Training Initiative and Parks as Classrooms programs of the National Park Service. This lesson is one in a series that brings the important stories of historic places into classrooms across the country. Objectives 1. To identify the events that led to the US decision to send a man to the Moon; 2. To examine some of the work necessary to make the Apollo project possible; 3. To describe how widely separated space centers cooperated on the Apollo project; 4. To evaluate arguments for preserving historic sites relating to the space program; 5. To discuss comparable debates about preserving places in their own communities that are associated with recent history. Materials for students The materials listed below can either be used directly on the computer or can be printed out, photocopied, and distributed to students. 1. Two maps showing locations important to the US space program; 2. Three readings about the Apollo project and its impact; 3. One illustration showing the Mission Control Center in Houston; 4. Five photographs of the Apollo project and the first manned landing of the Moon. Visiting the site John F. Kennedy Space Center This space center is located east of Orlando in central Florida. From Orlando National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier International Airport, it can be reached by taking State Route 528 (Kennedy Space Center Highway) east and following the signs. Follow State Route 407 until it dead-ends into State Route 405 and turn right. Continue following the signs. From Interstate 95, take exit number 212, if heading north, and exit number 215, if heading south. George C. Marshall Space Flight Center The US Space and Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Alabama, is the Marshall Space Flight Center's official visitor center. It is located near the junction of Interstate 565 and Research Boulevard. Take the Sparkman Drive exit and follow the signs. Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center This space center is adjacent to Clear Lake at 2101 NASA Road 1, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Houston via Interstate 45. Much of the hardware of the "space race" is displayed at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville; the Kennedy Space Center; and the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier Getting Started What do you think is happening in this photo? National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier Photo Analysis Worksheet Step 1: Examine the photograph for 10 seconds. How would you describe the photograph? Step 2: Divide the photograph into quadrants and study each section individually. What details--such as people, objects, activities--do you notice? Step 3: What other information--such as time period, location, season, reason photo was taken--can you gather from the photo? Step 4: How would you revise your first description of the photo using the information noted in Steps 2 and 3? Step 5: What questions do you have about the photograph? How might you find answers to these questions? National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places U.S. Department of the Interior America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier Setting the Stage If we are to win the battle that is going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, if we are to win the battle for men's minds, the [Soviet Union's] dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all…the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take.... We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share...